MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falklands Government want ?official' Lan Chile flights.

According to Falklands Councillors, ?Argentine bureaucracy' is the factor behind the delays in flights conducted by the Chilean airline Lan Chile, reaching the Falklands.

Chief Executive Dr Michael Blanch said that ?The status of the weekly flight needs to be determined, and a decision whether it is a scheduled service or not is required very quickly'. It is anticipated that the Argentine Government will be approached and asked to ?officially' recognize the weekly flight.

Currently Lan Chile fly to the Islands each Saturday from Santiago with stop-overs in Puerto Montt and Punta Arenas enroute, with one flight a month to and from the Islands stopping in the southern Argentine city of Rio Gallegos. However recently on several occasions the aircraft has been delayed owing to bad weather or technical difficulties, and according to the Chief Executive ?permission from the Argentine Minister of Foreign Affairs has to be sought to obtain a new slot for the flight which has resulted in a considerable time delays'.

Last week the aircraft was held up for 4 days waiting for permission from the Argentine Government to continue the flight to the Falklands, despite the fact that a party of Argentine 1982 War dependant relatives (next-of-kin) were waiting to visit the Argentine Cemetery at Darwin. The relatives were bitterly disappointed to have their anticipated weeks stay in the Falklands reduced to 3 days.

?Our priority is to make the Lan Chile service a scheduled flight and this means going to the Argentine Government to seek their approval' said Dr Blanch. ?If we can obtain official status for the weekly flight then the aircraft could continue its journey just as soon as the problems are resolved, and the airline would not need to wait for several days for permission to fly on'. He emphasized that if the aircraft problem was minimal then the flight could continue almost immediately, but if there was a long delay then this resulted in ?an operational problem' and authorization from Buenos Aires being sought, which often took several days to obtain.

Under a Treaty signed in London in July last year by British, Argentine and Falklands officials, Argentine passport holders were given the right to visit the Islands, which was previously denied to them, and the once a month stop-over in Rio Gallegos on flights to the Falklands by Lan Chile, was also approved.